Google’s DeepMind Will Diagnose Cancer Faster

Google’s DeepMind recently announced they are partnering with the Radiotherapy Department at University College London Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust. Google hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) can speed up the process of diagnosing patients with head and neck cancers. This will free doctors’ schedules so they are able to focus on treating patients and working on research.

In order to examine the head and neck, doctors use image segmentation, where they take CT and MRI scans of the patient’s anatomy and use the scans to determine where to deliver treatment. This is usually a four hour process, but Google believes DeepMind can complete the same tests in an hour.

DeepMind is Google’s research arm that focuses on deep learning; that is, an AI that identifies patterns within large groups of data. DeepMind will look at scans from 700 anonymous former patients and use an algorithm to analyze the scans. Once the scans have been analyzed, AI will be able to infer which tissues are healthy and which are cancerous. Doctors will then be able to utilize this information to deliver targeted treatment.

In addition to the London NHS Foundation, DeepMind has partnered with Moorsfield Eye Hospital to detect eye diseases and conditions.